Big Box Building Bust

Oshkosh, Wisconsin is dealing with a problem that many mid-sized towns and cities have been facing lately: What do we do with vacant big box stores?

Retail Forward, a market research firm in Columbus, Ohio has examined the impact of super-centers and found that for every super-center that opens, two neighborhood center close. Since many neighborhood shopping centers are anchored by supercenter, if the supercentercloses, neighboring businesses that rely on foot traffic are also threatened. Communities can be left with vacant shopping centers, creating blight and driving down property values.

On Sunday, The Northwestestern reported on a particular Oshkosh buildingŠa former Wal-Mart that was vacated in 2003, and has stood abandoned ever since.
One of the problems with these big boxes is that they are environmentally generally have to be razed, or undergo extensive construction, in order to be reused by business, industry, or manufacturing.

An ABC affiliate in Maine reported yesterday on its swell of vacant buildings:

Big box stores continue to pop up around Maine. There are plans for three new buildings along Stillwater Avenue in Bangor alone. But when a store moves to a bigger building across town, the community is left trying to fill the vacant building left behind.

A MFA graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) published her thesis on recycling the big box store. She discovered a former Wal-Mart that was converted into the Central Kentucky Comprehensive Medical Center (with $4 million of renovation) and a former Kmart (40,000 square feet) that was converted into The Head Start Resource Center in Hastings, Nebraska. A Kmart in Charlotte turned into a charter school. Go-carts motor through a Texas building that used to be a Wal-Mart.

List prices for abandoned box stores tend to be "negotiable." For example, a 72,000-square-foot former Wal-Mart in Roane, Tennessee and a 111,400-square-foot former Wal-Mart in Scottsbluff, NE both have no listing prices. The Greenville News reported that leasing big-box space costs about $6 per square foot, while it's about $22 per square foot in a mall.

Perhaps governments and economic development organizations can encourage buyers with more incentives and small business loans. Or perhaps the builders of WalMarts, Kmarts, Lowes, and other big box stores should consider creating a more re-usable space.

Sources: The Northwestern, WCSH Portland, Rensselaer Alumni Magazine, Roane Alliance, Twin Cities Development Corporation, Greenville Online